D.C.: Lawsuit filed against former IDF chief
Anonymous person approaches former IDF chief of staff Moshe Yaalon and tries to hand him a statement of claim for alleged involvement in a shooting attack
Former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon confirmed to Ynet Thursday evening that an anonymous person tried to hand him a civil statement of claim for his alleged involvement in a shelling of the Lebanese village of Qana.
Yaalon, who is due to address a conference on terrorism at the Brookings Institute in Washington, refused to accept the statement.
“That’s the second time they try to give me a statement of claim and I refuse to accept it,” Yaalon told Ynet.
Yaalon said that on November 4 he was approached by an anonymous group of people wanting to give him a statement claim.
“That’s a ridiculous civil lawsuit. It’s a lawsuit related to an incident in Kana to which I have no connection to whatsoever. The other lawsuit was related to the Rachel Corrie incident (in which an IDF D9 bulldozer hit and killed the American citizen). They argued that I was responsible as chief of staff,” Yaalon added.
The former army chief said military legal teams are investigating the lawsuits, which he said were politically motivated.
Almog remained on the plane
Last Thursday, former Shin Bet Chief Avi Dichter who is also in Washington, had a lawsuit filed against him in a New York federal court by Palestinians accusing him of “war crimes”.
The lawsuit, classified as a civil case, was filed by Palestinians who had relatives killed or injured in an IAF strike in the Gaza Strip in July 2002, killing 15 people and injuring 150 others.
The plaintiffs accuse Dichter of direct involvement in the operation which targeted and killed top Hamas terrorist and bomb mastermind Salah Shehadeh in a one-ton bomb dropped on his house.
In September Major General Doron Almog was supposed to visit London to gather donations for the first disabled children's village in the world, but was advised by Israel's ambassador to Great Britain not to leave the aircraft after a Muslim group threatened to have him arrested for "war crimes" during the al-Aqsa intifada.
Almog remained on the plane and departed for Israel a few hours later.
In the wake of the incident the cabinet unanimously adopted a proposal by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni demanding the government finance legal protection for members of the security establishment threatened by legal action abroad for acts they had committed during their service.
